Pages

January 6, 2014

Unstuffed Cabbage Roll Skillet

All the goodness of cabbage rolls without precooking the rice or parboiling the cabbage in this deconstructed cabbage roll recipe that cooks in a skillet!

Once again I found myself staring at a pound of ground beef trying to think of something new to do with it. Lord, I get sick of it but I’m thankful for it nonetheless because, when we’re on that last stretch before payday, sometimes it’s what gets us by.

So anyway, I’m standing there with the refrigerator door open, hoping inspiration will smack me down when I spotted a head of cabbage. I immediately thought of a conversation I’d had the week before with a sweet little lady at the grocery store about cabbage rolls. Then I shot that idea down because I didn't feel like taking the time to blanch the leaves.

But I still had cabbage rolls on the brain when the wheels started turning… What if I cooked all the ingredients together in a skillet and made sort of a deconstructed cabbage roll dish!? Like a casserole. But quicker! Kinda like an “unstuffed” cabbage roll!

I grabbed up all the ingredients and prayed it would work!

And it totally did!

I ate and ate and ATE this stuff last night! I couldn't get enough of it! Husband kept telling me to lay off or me and my belly full of cabbage were going to have to sleep on the couch! Hahaa!

instructions:

You’ll need a large skillet with fitted lid to cook this dish. If you don’t have a lidded skillet big enough to hold all of the ingredients, see alternative preparation below. It is important to have a tight-fitting lid when cooking this dish to ensure the rice cooks properly.

Brown ground beef in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add cabbage, onion, garlic, salt and pepper and continue cooking until cabbage is slightly tender. Add cabbage mixture, beef broth and rice to a large pot or Dutch oven and stir well. Heat over high heat until broth starts to boil. Cover pot with fitted lid, reduce heat to medium-low and continue cooking, stirring occasionally, for 20-25 minutes or until rice is cooked through. Remove pot from heat and let rest, covered, for 10 minutes. Serve with Tangy Tomato Topping.

Tangy Tomato Topping:

While the finished cabbage dish is resting, combine condensed tomato soup (without water), vinegar and brown sugar in a small pan and cook over medium heat for 10 minutes or until sauce starts to bubble. Drizzle topping over prepared cabbage dish or individual servings.

Tried this today! Pure genius, I'm telling ya! My babies who usually turn up their finicky little noses ate a whole bowl full. I would have never thought to do this. It's way easier than stuffed cabbage rolls!

I just made this for dinner and we were both thrilled with it. Never going to go through the hassle of blanching and rolling again. Thanks so much. It's going to be one of my favorite recipes I'm sure.

Not for this recipe, no. If that's all you have, adjust liquid and cooking time per manufacturer's instructions. I can't say for sure because I've never cooked Minute Rice so I don't know how it would work.

You must have read my mind today! I just came back from the grocery store (since we have a big snow storm coming) and bought a cabbage, even though it wasn't on my list, and tomato soup was on sale so I bought that, too, with no idea what to make with that cabbage! Can't wait to try this this weekend! Thank you from a "frozen" southern transplant who lives now in NE Ohio where Old man winter is at my door day and night! But this dish is promising to keep us warm!

So...I wonder what would happen if one were to fry up three or four slices of smoked bacon until it's crisp, drain it, crumble it, and set it aside. When all but a tablespoon or so of the bacon fat was poured out, the beef could begin its cooking. At the end, one could stir the bacon back into the mixture, shred up some nice medium Cheddar, and spread it on top of the mixture for the last five minutes or so of the cooking time. I think I'll TRY that! Thanks for the idea!

Yup! But I'll sure bet it would be good! This is the sort of food a feller wants after a day of chopping wood and shoveling snow, anyway. At that point calories and fats need replenishment. If Aunt Tilly is coming over for luncheon, break out the cucumber and watercress sandwiches and save the cabbage for supper!

I made this tonight, it was so yummy. I was full but still wanted more. Only thing I did different was, used 2 cans of tomato soup and added brown sugar n vinegar to my taste then added to the pan and simmered it altogether. So good!

I made this earlier this week; was excellent! And, since I had some leftover "slow cooker stuffed bell pepper soup" it occurred to me that I could combine the leftovers (I like to have extra on hand to take to work for lunch since we have a microwave and fridge available). So, nothing is going to waste and it's "all good." Thanks for sharing your recipes.

I posted earlier that I thought that this dish was the bomb. I call both of my daughters and told them how much I liked this dish. So they both went to the store and cooked it for dinner last night they gave it a thumbs up!

My Mom made cabbage rolls. They were delish. I had never made them before until tonivht. Oh my gosh, what a pain they were to make. When something is that much trouble I won't do it twice, but I love cabbage rolls so I went in search of an easier way. When I stumbled upon this I was very excited. We have lots of left overs , so I won't be making this anyt ime soon, but next time I get a craving for it, this is the recipe I will use. Thank you.

Growing up my mom made what we called Rice, cabbage and hamburger! I make it to this day, tweaking it for more flavor, mom was just a salt/pepper seasoner! I was sooo surprised to see this recipe, almost exactly the same minus the tomato topping! When I would eat leftovers everyone would ask what it was and then look at me like I was strange! Glad to see we aren't alone! Yummm, I could eat it until I explode!

I made this for supper, tonight! Yes, I cooked! My husband, Ed, usually does the cooking. Ed doesn't usually like cooked cabbage. Guess what? We both had seconds! I made mine with Italian sausage instead of ground beef. DELICIOUS!

I love this recipe, but lately I've tweaked it and stumbled upon something awesome. I made this with ground pork and beef broth, omitted the tangy tomato sauce and substituted sambal oelek chili paste (about a half-teaspoon per serving) to give it a kick, My husband said it tasted exactly like egg rolls (minus the roll) and immediately added it to our go-to dinner list. It's delicious!

Hi there! While I'm not able to respond to every comment, I try hard to answer any questions that haven't been addressed in the post, recipe or in other comments. And though I may not respond to them all, I do read each and every comment and I LOVE to hear from you guys! Thanks, y'all! - Mandy